BERLIN, September 7. /TASS/. The German government cannot provide a united stance on the repercussions of the alleged poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, namely in relation to Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, German Government Spokesperson Steffen Seibert told reporters on Monday.
"I understand that your questions are formed in one direction - about the repercussions," he said, adding that so far, "it is too early to respond to them."
Seibert recalled that Germany "is waiting for answers" from Russia regarding Navalny’s case. The spokesman added that while Nord Stream 2 is often considered a German project, it involves companies from other states as well.
Merkel-Putin dialogue
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has not discussed the situation surrounding blogger Alexei Navalny with Russian President Vladimir Putin yet, the German government spokesman told reporters.
"The chancellor has not discussed the Navalny incident with President Putin yet," he said.
On Wednesday, the German government said citing military toxicologists that Navalny had been exposed to a nerve agent of the Novichok family.
For his part, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was ready for comprehensive cooperation with Germany. He noted that no toxic substances had been found in Navalny’s body before he was airlifted to Berlin.
'Intercepted' Berlin-Warsaw phone call
Germany’s government continues to think that the telephone call between German and Polish officials concerning the incident with Russian opposition blogger Alexei Navalny allegedly intercepted by Belarusian intelligence services is not true, Steffen Seibert said on Monday.
"We already said last week that these allegations are not true. The transcript of this fabricated conversation that has been available since this weekend has not changed our opinion," he said answering a TASS question.
During talks with visiting Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Thursday, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus’ intelligence had intercepted a telephone call between Warsaw and Berlin proving that allegations of Navalny’s poisoning by a Novichok-type toxic agent were a fabrication. He did not say however who was talking. Later in the day the recording of the call was released by Belarus’ state television channel ONT. In the English-language recording of the call between Berlin and Warsaw provided in Russian translation, two individuals discuss the materials on Navalny.
Both Berlin and Warsaw have challenged the authenticity of the recording.
Russian opposition figure Navalny was rushed to a local hospital in the Siberian city of Omsk on August 20 after collapsing on the Tomsk-Moscow flight. He fell into a coma and was hooked up to a ventilator in the intensive care unit. On August 22, he was airlifted to the Charite hospital in Berlin.
The German government later claimed that having examined Navalny’s test samples, the Bundeswehr’s toxicologists had come to a conclusion that the blogger had been affected by a toxic agent of the Novichok family. Berlin called on Moscow to clarify the circumstances of the incident. Russia stated that it was interested in investigating what had happened to Navalny. Nevertheless, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Berlin has not presented any proof of its version of the incident yet.